Announcements From Minecon Earth!

Minecon Earth may be wrapping up this year, but don’t be disheartened; another wave of excitement is about to begin. We have announced the arrival of significant updates in Minecraft Pocket Edition. There will be a plethora of news to follow until the end of 2018.

Minecraft Update: Village Raiding

Grrr! Grrr! Grr! What are you talking about? Is it about the village? Let me break down the new update in simple and straightforward terms for you.

Jens “Jeb” Bergensten and Agnes Larsson took the stage to announce an upcoming major update for Minecraft Bedrock, which will introduce a variety of intriguing villagers to the game! The village will thrive in peace with the help of these friendly characters. You might even discover their unique structures across different biomes! Allow me to present the future inhabitants of the jungle biome:

Starting from the top row and moving left to right: Librarian, Butcher, Cleric, Cartographer, Leatherworker, and Fletcher. Now looking at the bottom row from left to right: Shepherd, Farmer, Fisherman, Armorer, Toolsmith, and Weaponsmith!

Is this one of the friendliest updates? Uh, not quite. Sinister raiders and their pets will attack the village, causing maximum damage and chaos to unsuspecting villagers. Not pleasant at all!

The raiders will come equipped with new weaponry—crossbows. Fortunately for you, you’ll also be able to craft and use this weapon! They take longer to reload than bows, but they compensate for that with superior power. Additionally, they become much more effective when enchanted with spells like Quick Charge, Enchantment, etc. It’s unfortunate we can’t demonstrate this right now. Better start preparing to defend your village against the Pillager attacks.

You’ll find a lot more diversity and types of villages, depending on the biome you visit. Perhaps you’ll stumble upon entirely new villages. Enough about what we’re building; we want to see what you create with these new materials! These expansions were added after being proposed seven years ago at the very first Minecon conference! They were aimed at enhancing building scaffolds. Made from bamboo, this will be great news for one mob that might want a snack.

Pandas and Cats

Yes, these adorable creatures will soon make their appearance. We’ll have even more news about these cute mobs in Minecraft. They are likely to arrive within a few weeks, so keep an eye on Minecraft.net!

As for the village raiding update, it will roll out in Minecraft Bedrock early next year.

Minecraft Dungeons

A new game! A new game! Yes, a brand-new title from Mojang! I’m so excited I could burst if I weren’t writing this article for you. You can learn more about the dungeons in Minecraft here!

Add-ons Enhancements

Add-ons are a fantastic way to modify the game, and you can read more about them here. Jason Major shared exciting news about how add-ons are being updated to give you even more control over the game! Previously, add-ons only allowed you to modify existing mobs, but with New Entities, you can now add your own mobs. You can also utilize Data Driven Spawning to manage which mobs can appear in your worlds and which cannot. Animation will provide additional options for creating mobs, allowing you to design terrifying octopus-like creatures that may have haunted your dreams and our nightmares. Particles will make your mobs visually striking. All these features are currently in development, and you can experience them in the beta version of Minecraft Bedrock starting October 3rd. Click here to learn more about Minecraft betas!

Like it! The scripting API is now more user-friendly than ever. It’s well-known that many players have requested this for a long time, so we’re thrilled to announce that the Scripting API is getting enhancements this year. Not familiar with Scripting API and trying to guess what it means? Essentially, this addition will assist developers in creating numerous scripts within the game that they can then embed into resource packs. More information on how this works will be available on Minecraft.net later.

We’ve never officially supported modding in the game, but the combination of the add-on system and the scripting API marks the beginning of an era we are working towards.

The Taiga Biome Wins!

During Minecon Earth 2018, we revealed plans to revamp three existing biomes in Minecraft: Taiga, Desert, and Savannah! Through player voting, it was decided which biome would receive the first update. And the winner is…

Congratulations, Taiga! You received the highest number of votes during the livestream, making you the next biome to be updated with a host of new features. Don’t worry, fans of the Desert and Savannah; those biomes will still be updated in due course.

We love involving our players in such decisions, so a big thank you to everyone who voted!

Inspiration Island

Another exciting part of the updates will be free for all players of Minecraft Pocket Edition. Visit Inspiration Island, a floating theme park world filled with creative ideas and challenges. If you’re new to creative mode or just need a bit of extra inspiration, exploring this park will guide you on your journey to crafting your worlds. By the time you leave the island, you’ll be a seasoned creator armed with plenty of skills to build amazing things!

Inspiration Island will be free and will launch on the Marketplace by the end of this year.

Tom, maybe it’s finally time to get some sleep and stop worrying about game issues? Spirits are leaving the ministry appointment.

Hooray! This is probably my favorite piece of news we’ve announced today. Well, after the pandas, of course.

That’s all! Thank you for participating in Minecon Earth 2018, and stay tuned to Minecraft.net for more details on these new and exciting developments. Now I’m off to get some much-needed rest… Or maybe I’ll check out the Minecraft Dungeons page once more.